Peanut vines at the proper stage of development are dug from the ground, shaken to remove dirt from the plants, inverted and deposited in a windrow foliage down and peanuts up for a period of drying before combining. Usually two rows of plants are dug, inverted and windrowed in one operation by the harvester machine. Some of the plumpest peanuts fall loosely to the ground and are lost in the digging, inverting and windrowing operation.
After a proper period of drying, the peanut harvester, an entirely separate machine, traverses the windrowed peanut vines and picks them up and by a multi-stage cleaning process well known in the art removes the nuts from vines and debris and finally delivers the nuts to a bag or bin entirely separate from the debris and vines or stems. Additional plump peanuts are shaken loose and fall to the ground and are lost to the farmer in the combining operation. It is always the plumpest and heaviest nuts which are lost in these two stages of harvesting at a considerable economic deficit.
Accordingly, it is the objective of this invention to provide a simple, reliable and relatively inexpensive loose peanut pick-up attachment for peanut combines, which, during the combining of the windrowed vines, will recover virtually all of the fallen nuts which were lost in the previous digging and inverting operation, as well as during combining when the pick-up head of the combine causes additional nuts to drop to the ground. The invention will therefore effect the recovery of particularly choice plump nuts during its operation as a combine attachment and will more than justify its cost.
With a few minor modifications, the peanut pick-up attachment can be adapted to virtually all peanut and edible bean combines now on the market and will mean a substantial savings in peanuts and beans for the farmer in return for little additional cost in equipment.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent during the course of the following description.